Story: The Bear and the Bees

A beehive hanging off of a tree branch in India.

Photograph by Muhammad Mahdi Karim (2012).

One day, a bear was walking in the jungle when he encountered a cat. The cat was trying to climb a tree in order to reach a beehive which hung on the highest branch. Every few seconds, a bee would swoop down and sting the cat. At this, the cat would fall back down. Even after a dozen stings, the cat still tried to climb the tree.

So distracted was the cat by her activity that she didn’t even notice the bear approaching her. The bear was rather bored and decided to play with this cat. He took his great paw and swiped at the cat. This certainly got the feline’s attention.

The cat yelped and shouted at the bear, “What are you doing? Trying to kill me?”

“No,” the bear replied, “I was only trying to play. I’m so bored and there’s nothing else to do.”

“Bored, eh?” The cat began to think of a plan by which to get the honey in that beehive. She didn’t think much of the bear’s intelligence and assumed he would do anything he was told. “I know something you can do,” the cat said.

“What is it?” asked the bear.

“You can climb this tree and get the beehive for me.”

“Why do you want to get the beehive?”

“It’s filled with a sweet golden goo.”

“That sounds tasty,” the bear said, licking his lips.

“It certainly is.”

“Can I have some if I help you get it down?”

The cat hadn’t expected this, but half of the honey was better than nothing at all. “Alright,” she said. “We’ll split the honey once you knock it off the tree.”

The bear started to climb and soon reached the top branch. The bees by then had lost all of their soldiers. Only the queen, her advisors, and the workers remained. When the bear started crawling across the branch in order to reach the beehive, he heard a tiny buzzing in his ear. He swatted by his ear but the buzzing resumed soon after. This buzzing almost sounded like speech. He listened more closely and could actually make out something.

“Bear, you must help us!”

Befuddled, the bear asked, “Who’s talking?”

“I am the queen of this hive. We are in dire straits. We have lost all of our soldiers and our hive is completely defenseless.”

“What would you have me do about it? I am only a bear.”

“You can guard us from other animals. You are big and strong and no animal would dare challenge you.”

“What about the cat? She asked me to knock your hive down so that she and I could split the honey inside.”

“If you do that, you will only get honey once. If you defend us, we will give you honey every day.”

“Will I get more honey that way?”

“Yes, you will, in the long run.”

At this point, the cat had grown impatient. She yelled, “What’s going on up there?”

“Nothing,” the bear replied. “I’m almost there.”

The queen bee said to the bear, “First, we need you to scare off the cat. She will probably take the hive for herself while you’re still in the tree.”

“I don’t think so. She seems trustworthy to me.”

“She’s not trustworthy at all,” replied the queen bee. The royal advisors, who had gathered around her, agreed with this statement.  

The bear wasn’t so convinced. In fact, he was rather angered by this statement. He took his great paw and swiped at the hive. It was now hanging by a thread. He swiped again and the whole thing came crashing down.

“Oh no,” the bear cried. “What have I done?”

The cat said to him, “You’ve gotten me a great deal of honey!” With that, the feline took the hive in her mouth and ran off.

The bear knew he should have listened to the queen bee. Had he been more patient and level-headed, he could have gotten honey everyday. Now, he had nothing at all.

Author’s Note

I didn’t have a specific story in mind when I was writing this. It’s in the style of the Fables of Bidpai. That is, the characters are all animals and a moral lesson is provided at the very end. Of course, there’s a trickster character who misleads the protagonist, the bear. I considered having the bear act as a defender of the bees for some time before realizing he could have the honey all at once. However, this story seems to work better in that the bear doesn’t come to this realization but rather is tricked into knocking the beehive down. Either way, he learns a lesson about patience and not acting rashly. I may add a frame story in order to make the moral more clear.

Bibliography

Maude Dutton. The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai. 1908.